Priest dies who refused to conform to the spirit of the age
Diocese of Görlitz: Controversial priest dies in Wittichenau
At Christmas, Father Joachim Wernersbach triggered a heated debate with his statements on homosexuality. It also caused the Bishop of Görlitz, Ipolt, to lurch from side to side. Now the Benedictine has died.
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Last Christmas, Benedictine monk Joachim Wernersbach made headlines with his sermon in Wittichenau because he considered homosexuality incompatible with the beautiful order of God. Now the priest has died. This was announced by the Diocese of Görlitz.
Joachim Wernersbach died after a short serious illness last Wednesday in Wittichenau, on the eve of Corpus Christi - one of the most important feasts of the year in the Catholic Church. He was 68 years old.
Wernersbach was born in Worms in 1955. He came to the monastery in a roundabout way, even though he studied theology. But he first managed a medium-sized company before joining the Benedictine Monastery of Tholey in Saarland in 2010. In 2015 he took perpetual vows as a monk, and two years later Wernersbach was ordained a priest. Since July 2021, he had been serving as a temporary chaplain in Wittichenau.
In his Christmas sermon, Father Joachim Wernersbach had described terms such as gender, LGBTQ or diversity as "strange modern trends". They are not in harmony with the unimaginably beautiful divine order. The terms are "absolutely alienating". They lack "beauty, coherence and naturalness".
This had provoked criticism in society and reinforced the image of the unworldly Catholic Church. But the sermon also remained controversial within the church. The home abbey in Tholey had distanced itself from the sermon of its confrere. It discriminated against large sections of society in many respects, for example in the image of women, in the understanding of family and also towards queer fellow human beings and the LGBT community, the abbey said in a statement. Abbot Mauritius Choriol banned Wernersbach from any pastoral activity for the Tholey area.
The Bishop of Görlitz, Wolfgang Ipolt, did not go that far. First, his press spokesman declared on his behalf that lived-out homosexuality was wrong behaviour. Ipolt backed away from this. He made it clear that he felt the monk's words in the Christmas sermon were out of place and finally also campaigned for a more appreciative approach to homosexuals in the church. Nevertheless, the monk remained in office, his temporary appointment was to end in 2024 as planned from the beginning.
In an interview with the Catholic website kath.net, Wernersbach himself was surprised by the impact of his sermon. He blamed the media for it. They had started a campaign and taken his statements out of context. At the same time, he admitted that he had always had "reservations about some modern trends". On the subject of homosexuality, he said: "The art is to distinguish between sin and sinner". He said his sermon had met with much approval.
The situation in the Catholic parish of Wittichenau, which is one of the largest and most important in the entire diocese of Görlitz, was also particularly difficult after the sermon because the main priest was in rehabilitation after a stroke and could not react at all. In the meantime, Wolfgang Kresak has resigned his pastorate, and Bishop Wolfgang Ipolt will soon have to reassign the office.
Cathcon: His parish clearly held him in higher esteem than this decaying world. From their website.
"In der Vigil des Fronleichnamsfestes hat unser Herrgott unseren lieben Pater Joachim Wernersbach OSB nach schwerer Krankheit heimgerufen."During the vigil of the Feast of Corpus Christi, our Lord God called our dear Father Joachim Wernersbach OSB home after a serious illness.
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